you approach the world of man again. Port
Arthur: Its skyline of refinery towers and tall
silver chimneys spouting blue smoke intro
duces you to the Texas stretch of the water
way. Stare out into the Gulf, and you find
another skyline out there-offshore oil rigs.
In Port Arthur I paid a call on one of Texas'
truly good ol' boys, Capt. Jimmy Lee. This
was home port to the Rebel Spirit, and Cap
tain Jimmy was her owner. In addition to his
towboats and helicopters (each bearing that
Confederate flag on its side), he owned an ice
plant, fuel dock, offshore communications
station, grocery store, liquor store, and as
sorted other enterprises. In his spare time he
headed the Sabine Pass Port Authority.
"Back when I started towboating almost 35
years ago," Captain Jimmy said, "we towed
our barges at the end of a hawser. Then some
push boats turned up from the Mississippi
River, and we saw that pushing beats pulling."
Captain Jimmy wants no man to doubt that
his heart belongs to Dixie. He took me on a
brief tour of Sabine Pass Battleground State
Historical Park, where in years past he has
led a cannonading, rebel-yelling reenactment
of the Civil War battle. The park commemo
rates the Confederate forces under the com
mand of Lt. Dick Dowling, who repulsed a
Union landing attempt.
Jimmy's grandfather was the park's first
caretaker, and Jimmy does his bit to maintain
the battle's proper place in the annals of the
South by restaging it.
"I love history and proud men," said Cap
tain Jimmy.
Rare Cranes Unruffled by Boats
From Galveston the Gulf Intracoastal
Waterway meanders southwest toward the
Mexican border, sometimes at sea, where it
is protected by sheltering islands.
It dips inland to cut through the marshes of
Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, winter
home of the whooping crane.
"The channel used to run outside the ref
uge," E. Frank Johnson, refuge manager, told
me. "Today, there is talk of widening and
deepening our stretch of the waterway. I'd
like to see that old channel reactivated and
this one abandoned. There's no place along
the banks for the dredging spoil, anyway."
The magnificent white cranes are accus
tomed to boat traffic, I learned. They feed in
Sailors ride the high side of a catamaran
on Pensacola Bay (above), which carries a
brisk traffic in pleasure craft. America's
quest for the sun has brought a construc
tion boom along the Gulf. New hotels and
condominiums like the Bahia Mar complex
(right) spike the southern end of Texas'
Padre Island. Northward along the narrow
barrier island lie eighty miles of dunes and
unbroken beach barred to developers. The
Padre Island National Seashore was set
aside in 1962 to remain in its natural state.
More than shells are found along the beach
-three Spanish treasure ships foundered on
this "graveyard of the Gulf" in 1554. All
have been partially salvaged.
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